Teams are about to cross the halfway point of the Race. And it’ll all happen in Agra, India!

Teams all scramble to the train station to secure tickets on the first train from Lucknow to Agra which departs tomorrow morning at 6am. Teams will arrive in Agra at 2:15pm.

Teams must search for flagged tuk-tuks outside the station and direct their drivers to take them to Hathi Ghat on the Yamuna River.

And here, teams will immediately find a Blind Double Yield! They must check in before heading over to the cluebox.

Also! This is the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If at least one Yield is used, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg of the Race.

Teams will open the next clue and it reveals a Road Block: Who’s ready to help the locals?

For this Road Block, teams will help the locals finish the day’s laundry. First, teams will dig through a huge pile of saris to find all 30 saris that match the color printed on their clue. They must then wrap them up, load them on a bicycle and transport the bundle to the banks of Yamuna River.

Here, teams will wash their saris in the traditional way before then laying the washed saris out to dry.

After the Road Block, teams must make their way to the iconic Taj Mahal.

Here, teams must, respectfully, search the grounds for four pieces of one clue which will be a photo of a view of the Taj Mahal. Teams must find where in the vicinity the photo was taken from to find the next clue.

That spot is at Mehtab Bagh.

And that clue will reveal the Detour: Bring the Groom or Bring the Fun.

In Bring the Groom, teams must help deliver a groom to his wedding. First, they must hand-crank a portable generator until it produces enough power to light up all the candelabras in a baraat procession. Teams will then join the procession with each team member either carrying a candelabrum or driving the bicycle cart carrying the generator. Once the groom meets his bride, teams will receive the next clue.

In Bring the Fun, teams must push a mobile amusement swing through the streets and deliver it to the playground outside the wedding party. They will then assemble the swing. And once they have 16 different children enjoy the ride, they will receive the next clue.

Teams must now search the area for the Pit Stop…

But teams will find that it has been abandoned. Instead, teams must use a provided map to find the new Pit Stop location.

And that map leads them to the real Pit Stop at Agra Fort.

The first team to check in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+ with half of that total going to the team’s chosen charity.

“Director’s” Commentary

So this is absolutely a recycled Leg. But I think it’s a good one to recycle for a TARPH Race AND with eight teams! That should be insane!

The two TAR27 India Legs were some of the best in recent memory. And I actually already recycled half of both Legs on TARPHDME9. So I’m now using the other halves of the Legs here as it, logistically, fit perfectly paired with the Lucknow Leg.

First, the laundry Road Block is great, but of course I must make it more challenging than the original task. Also placing a Yield right before it when all teams will be arriving in Agra at the same time and likely arriving at this location around the same time should provide some fun. Making it Blind even when all teams are there should also be amusing lol All the teams digging through a huge pile of clothes should be great too.

So I’m not sure what restrictions there are filming at the Taj Mahal. But I think video is allowed in certain areas. So of course, we can allow this task in those areas only and still maximize and feature our time at this iconic location. This little “find the location” task from the photo is straightforward, but can be challenging for teams.

The highlight of the Leg should definitely be the Detour. It really was one of the best Detours in these recent seasons of TAR. Very physical, taking place at night, locals getting involved… it’s all crazy fun and still very challenging.

We could easily have the Pit Stop behind the wedding tent like TAR27, but this Leg needed another task so I decided to have this little TARPH2 (the real one!)-inspired “fake Pit Stop.” Using a map ONLY to find Agra Fort should be interesting and it will need teams to interact with the locals some more.

Overall, a great Leg with lots of potential for good TV especially with so many teams at this point in the Race.